Dec. 18, 2013

Written by

Joey Garrison

The Tennessean

Tennessee State Treasurer David Lillard

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The state of Tennessee has agreed to pay for credit monitoring for the some 6,300 Nashville teachers whose personal information, including Social Security numbers, was transferred to a personal computer without authorization by a former Department of Treasury employee.

State Treasury officials have assured Metro teachers that 24-year-old Steven Hunter, who resigned from the department last Thursday, did not disseminate the information or use it for himself.

As a precaution, though, the department plans to provide written notice to every affected teacher, informing them of plans to provide them identity theft protection with an explanation of how to sign up, Tennessee State Treasurer David Lillard informed Metro Director of Schools Jesse Register in a Tuesday letter.

State officials don’t have a cost estimate of the credit monitoring, which is voluntary and would be covered for one year. A phone hotline is in the works to assist teachers on new information on the case.

“We just felt it was necessary to be proactive,” Treasury department spokesman Blake Fontenay said. “There are obviously concerned teachers out there, and we want to do everything we can do try to set their minds at ease.”

The Treasury department and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced over the weekend that Hunter had illegally uploaded a Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System file containing the personal information of teachers before he left state government.

Hunter, according to his personnel file, worked as a substitute teacher in Metro from September 2010 through August 2012.

Hunter, an information technology worker in his latest job with the Treasury Department, told the TBI that he had emailed information from a state computer system using a personal account “to perform his duties at home,” a TBI spokeswoman said this week.

Hunter had been reprimanded last month for leaving a state laptop on his desk after work, violating rules meant to protect state computers and data. That incident, combined with other warnings about interoffice communications, appear to have led to Hunter’s resignation Thursday.

In the letter to Register, Lillard said the TBI has indicated it will soon conclude a forensic examination of Hunter’s computer. A report should be available next week. Lillard and his staff were to meet with representatives of both the Tennessee Education Association and the Metro Nashville Education Association on Tuesday.

Metro school board member Will Pinkston, who called on the state earlier in the week to provide the identity theft protection, said he’s pleased the state has opted to “do what’s right.”

“The question now is, what changes are they implementing to ensure that this kind of breach doesn’t happen in the future?” he said.